Five years after a royal commission exposed rampant corruption in Australia's biggest police force, a new investigation is showing little has changed.
After a three-year covert operation, dozens of officers in the New South Wales force are being shown to have stolen drugs, money and hand guns from drug dealers, and to have extorted money from them in return for shelving or reducing criminal charges.
In a drama being played out in front of the Police Integrity Commission, dealers with codenames such as B5 and G2 are providing evidence of extraordinary levels of extortion and abuse of power by detectives in some of Sydney's most upmarket suburbs.
Officers were taped and secretly filmed raiding dealers' homes and stealing wads of cash from wherever they found it - even hidden in the lining of a dealer's jacket. Much of the evidence is based on undercover tapes recorded by M5, a serving detective.
So far, 25 people have been arrested on more than 60 charges. They include Detective Senior Constable David Patison, 41, and Detective Senior Constable Matthew Jasper, 30, who were taped driving around in a police car, counting the money they had just stolen from a marijuana dealer.
M5, wearing a concealed tape recorder, says: 'I got four grand in fifties.'
